Traveling Socal Gal

[guacamole]

Hi friends,

 

A little about me - a few years ago I moved from a small town to Los Angeles for college. I'm studying business, and geek out a lot about technology! I love talking about tech trends and love the entrepreneurial spirit in Socal. I also am a huge fan of avocados.

However, I've been struggling with body image/ weight issues my whole life, constantly being told by parents that I needed to lose weight. I've never felt comfortable in my own skin.

 

Weight loss history:

I've consistently been gaining weight since middle school and had never seen the number on the scale drop. I participated in rec sports in college, and went to the gym for weight lifting for about 2 months, with no change on the scale, got busy, and stopped going. I've also tried diets like keto, but it was extremely hard to maintain, with no tangible results. It wasn't until last year, when I restricted my calorie intake to around 1000 per day did I see progress, and dropped about 10 pounds. However, after that short-lived success, I began traveling for a semester of study abroad. While traveling with friends, we ate out, and it was difficult to say no to high-calories meals and snacks. Next thing I know, I gained back the 10 pounds, easy.

Now, as I am wrapping up the last month to my study abroad, I still have 4 more months of traveling for a summer internship before returning back to LA. I wanted to look for workouts I could do easily without much equipment - and that's how I found NF. Definitely already trying to paleo-ize my diet. It's been difficult resisting non-paleo snacks and free food. How did you stop yourself from breaking your diet when first going paleo?

 

I've been looking at the workouts and diets for some time now, and today I finally took the plunge to actually try the beginner bodyweight workout. It kicked my butt. I did the warmups, got through one circuit... and couldn't get through the second. But, baby steps.

 

Thus, I've decided on the following goals for now:

• Be able to do 3 circuits on the beginner bodyweight workout by the end of June
• Be able to do circuits with regular pushups by August
• Consistency & discipline to stick to working out at least 2-3 times a week!

 

I think that one of my biggest problems so far is discipline. I know motivation only gets you so far, and that self-discipline is the only way to get anywhere. I would really love to hear your tips on how you maintained your own discipline when starting out - whether it's diet or keeping up with workouts!

 

Cheers! Really looking forward to building a support network here! 

[scottiek]

Hello Guacamole! I love guacamole. Mmmmmm guacamole. I'm a newbie too so I'm not qualified to say how to stay clean on your diet other than to echo what I've read on NF. One thing I'm working on is to practice mindful eating. If you are faced with a yummy snack, ask yourself "is eating this going to further my fitness goals?" And if you decide to eat whatever it is, just remind yourself that you are making this choice consciously and that you will get right back to eating how you should be eating as soon as you can. But remember, we are just starting out, so slip-ups are inevitable. Don't beat yourself up over it! What killed me over and over was having an all-or-nothing attitude starting out on a very restrictive diet that set me up for failure. So naturally I'd slip up, say "I can't do this" and blow a whole day...then I'd be off it just as fast as I was on it. No good. 

 

There's an article around here about the mindset between "I can't eat _____" versus "I don't eat ______" which I found pretty useful. I have not developed the self-control to just eat one cookie so I say to myself "I don't eat cookies." Today was a really hard day to do this though. Krispy Kremes and cheesecake were in the office today. I mindfully told myself that I had better not even start or I wouldn't be able to stop. Crisis averted for now, I imagine it will be a constant struggle. Also, set up your bat cave and get rid of the non-paleo snacky stuff before you eat it all. Find some paleo snacks that you enjoy and have those around to snack on. I'm starting loosely paleo-ish while focusing on cutting out sugar and carbs, going to do that for at least two months and see how it goes. 

 

So what are they teaching in business school nowadays? I have a BBA with what was called a Management Info Systems concentration (shows how old I am!) I imagine you're doing something similar, whatever they call it now. Must be exciting! Have a great day & good luck in school!

[OfficeSchmoe]

I have absolutely no advice whatsoever except that you should eat a lot of avocados  One thing that is great about living here is that the avocados are cheap and, usually, great!